Here There Be Monsters

Hermetic Wizards

Murgatroyd is an example Wizard balanced between Rotes and foci.

Joseph Blanc is an example Wizard who only has foci (and is very combat focused).

Miles Hendricks is an example Mysterian / Wizard combo with a heavy focus on Rotes and Innate abilities.

Hermetic Wizards are practitioners of Hermetic Wizardry, a very flexible, adaptable, and powerful sort of magic that combines free-form Rotes, reliable and powerful static effects controlled through Focuses, and subtle but useful Innate abilities that accrue over time as the Hermetic Wizard's own body and essense is slowly tranformed by exposure to magic.

Hermetic Wizards have a powerful and rich tradition of magic, with a broad array of abilities broken down into three basic categories:

Rote: Hermetic Wizards cast some spells directly, but favor time and calculation over speed in such endeavors. A Variable Power Pool is used to model this (described below).
Innate: Hermetic Wizards internalize some of their magic, becoming altered and more capable over time due to their exposure to supernatural forces.
Focused: Hermetic Wizards rely heavily on pre-constructed items to help them focus very specific types of magical energies in unsettled situations.

Hermetic Wizards are not required to have abilities from all three categories, or even either set of two. They can if they choose eschew a category of Wizardry. Thus a Hermetic Wizard might have only Rote abilities, or only Focused abilities, or only Innate abilities, or any combination thereof. However, a Wizard that builds their skills in all three areas is likely a better balanced and more effective Wizard than one who has opted to specialize.

RESTRICTIONS

In a Here There Be Monsters campaign, Hermetic Wizards have the following restrictions:

Rote Variable Power Pools cannot have more Pool or Active Points than the Hermetic Wizards (INT + EGO + PRE).
The total Real Cost of Innate abilities cannot exceed the Hermetic Wizard's ((Base Points + Max Complications + Experience Points) / 5).
The total Real Cost of Focused abilities cannot exceed the Hermetic Wizard's (INT + EGO + PRE).

KS: Hermetic Lore

Hermetic Wizards must have a Knowledge Skill called Hermetic Lore. In addition to providing information regarding Hermetic traditions, capabilities, and notable history (which even non-Hermetic Wizards can take the skill for) it is also used to create focuses, to improve an existing focus, to change abilities in a Rote VPP, or when a Requires Skill Roll Limitation is taken on a spell in a Rote VPP. This is a Knowledge Skill, thus standard pricing options apply, the Scholar enhancer reduces it's cost, and so forth.

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KS: Hermetic Lore: This skill provides information regarding Hermetic traditions, capabilities, and notable history.

KS: Mystic Lore

Wizards are not required to have Mystic Lore, and they do not need it for their magic, but it is common for knowledgeable Wizards to have the skill for general knowledge purposes.

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KS: Mystical Lore: This skill provides very broad information regarding Magic in general. It is not as precise as a more specific skill such as KS: Hermetic Lore or KS: Alchemy, but it grants a high level picture of Mystical concerns.

KS: Supernatural World

Wizards are not required to have KS: Supernatural World, and they do not need it for their magic, but it is common for knowledgeable Wizards to have the skill for general knowledge purposes.

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KS: Supernatural World: This skill indicates a general awareness of the Supernatural World and the monsters, magickers, and misanthropes that comprise it.

Rote Abilities

Hermetic Wizards have the ability to cast spells in a Rote or ritualized fashion, typically requiring extra time, meditation, and so forth (though faster effects are possible they are usually very taxing or unreliable). Rote casting requires the following Variable Power Pool; the Hermetic Wizardry Lore Skill is used to change powers in the VPP.

Rote VPP

A Hermetic Wizard taking their time and doing their research can almost always find a Rote effect to help them in their endeavors. However heightened circumstances such as combat are another matter entirely, and most Wizards make a habit of preparing one or more useful offensive or defensive Rote effects prior to venturing into harms way.

Sample Hermetic Wizard character write ups generally depict one or more combat-releavant Rotes in Rote VPP's for convenience sake. However the GM should realize that a Wizard can use almost any sort of Rote, and should pay close attention to the introduction of new effects.

Rote VPP (5e)

Hermetic Wizard Rote Magic: Variable Power Pool (Magic), 10 Pool; Hermetic Lore Skill used to change Spells; Limited Class Of Powers Available: Hermetic Wizardry Rote Magic (-1/2), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; Extra Time, Concentration, Ritual, Window Of Opportunity, Incantations, Increased END Cost, Side Effects, Gestures, Requires a Roll; -1/2), Requires Access To Spell Books And Time To Change Powers (-1/2); Real Cost: 12 Character Points per 10 Pool

Rote VPP (6e)

Hermetic Wizard Rote Magic: Variable Power Pool (Magic), 10 base + 10 control cost; Hermetic Lore Skill used to change Spells, (15 Active Points); Limited Class Of Powers Available: Hermetic Wizardry Rote Magic (-1/2); Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; Extra Time, Concentration, Ritual, Window Of Opportunity, Incantations, Increased END Cost, Side Effects, Gestures, Requires a Roll; -1/2), Requires Access To Spell Books And Time To Change Powers (-1/2); Real Cost: 12 Character Points per 10 Pool / 10 Active Points

Mastered Rotes

Ars Mysterium is an older but compatible Hermetic Art, and if they choose to Wizards can "master" a Rote by buying it (or a close equivalent) as a Mysterian Spell skill, and this can be a compelling option for combat effects. Howevever, most Wizardly Orders instead favor using focuses such as Wands or Staves for combat magic, and many look down upon the more raw practices of Mysterium.

Innate Abilities

Hermetic Wizards often have or eventually develop subtle abilities stemming from their intimate contact with magical forces. A couple of very common Innate abilities are provided below, but generally speaking any ability a GM would allow a Hermetic Wizard to purchase as a Focused ability can be made an Innate ability simply by eschewing or buying off the Focus Limitation.

Innate Ability: Supernatural Awareness

Many Hermetic Wizards take the Supernatural Awareness Talent or an equivalent ability built up directly using the Detect Power with different modifiers and adders.

Innate Ability: Longevity

Some Hermetic Wizards take the Life Support (Longevity) ability to represent extended life spans. GM permission is required.

Focused Abilities

Hermetic Wizards can buy some of their abilities with the Focus Limitation applied. Such Foci can be either Inaccessible or Accessible but must be Personal (Universal is not allowed). A Hermetic Wizard's items are simply personal devices only usable by their creator; to other people - even other Wizards - they are just mundane items.

As Rote magic is generally not practical in a life or death situation, and Innate abilities tend to be more subtle, Hermetic Magi rely heavily on items that they have enchanted over time with relatively static but potentially quite powerful effects when in heightened circumstance.

Any mundane item can be enchanted over time to serve a Hermetic Wizard's purposes. Traditional Hermetic Wizards favor classical items such as Staves, Wands, Rods, Rings, and so forth, but younger or more practical Wizards prefer to use items that blend in better in modern society.

Some Hermetic Wizards favor a single item to serve as their Focus for all such effects, but many prefer to use several Foci. There are pros and cons involved with either approach; with all the Hermetic Wizard's abilities locked into one item they are more vulnerable to being deprived of it, but with their abilities spread across multiple items they are left with the inconvenience of switching between them in circumstances where each second might count.

Hermetic Wizards can use Powers Frameworks as Focused abilities with only one caveat; the entire Framework must also take the Focus Limitation and the Framework and all Powers in it must be represented by a single focus (not as a Gadget Pool or collection of foci).

EXAMPLE: Joseph Blanc has two Wands and a Rod. Both Wands are the Foci for separate Multipowers (MP), and the Rod is the Focus for a limited VPP. The two MP's and VPP's involved must all be taken as separate frameworks, not one large one with a complex Foci arrangement.

Focused Item Design Restrictions

There are a number of restrictions which apply to a Hermetic Wizard's Focused abilities, as follows.

All Powers must take the Focus Limitation

All Hermetic Wizardry Foci are Personal Foci
All Hermetic Wizardry Foci may be considered "Durable" Foci unless the GM rules otherwise

No Power can take the Independent Limitation
No Power can take Non-Recoverable Charges
No Power can take the No Conscious Control Limitation, typically
A Power can Require a Skill Roll to be activated but must use the Hermetic Lore Skill
Any other Limitation is allowable in principle, though the GM exercises final veto
Yield and Stop Sign abilities always require GM approval

Hermetic Wizard Foci

As Hermetic Wizards must pay the Real Cost of all of their Focused abilities, the process of creating focused items is fairly straightforward and mostly just involves an investment of in-game time to accomplish. The following guidelines dictate the means of creating, replacing and improving Hermetic Wizardry items (foci), which is henceforth referred to as "enchanting" an item for convenience.

Enchanted items generally are considered Durable unless a player deliberately takes the Fragile modifier for an item. Aside from those caveats, all the other options available for Foci can be used to define a particular Hermetic Wizardry item.

By default there is nothing particularly special or notable about the base items used by Hermetic Wizards to create their items with; a Hermetic Wizard could pick up a mundane item and over time infuse it until it is usable as a conduit for their magic.

Though foci can actually be practically any item, players are encouraged to be creative (but not abusive). A GM might opt to grant a circumstance bonus of +1 to +3 to the Hermetic Lore skill roll required to enchant a Hermetic focus if the item used is particularly relevant or thematic to the nature of the abilities it is being used to focus; for instance a Hermetic Wizard enchanting an old watch as a Focus for time affecting abilities might gain such a bonus.

To enchant a Hermetic Wizardry item, a player or GM designs all of the effects that are going to be in the item. In game the Hermetic Wizard must spend one hour "enchanting" the item per Active Points in the focus (including all Powers and Frameworks; see below for guidelines on calculating the Active Points for Frameworks).

If upgrading an existing focus with new abilities, only the Active Points of the new abilities are considered.

The process of enchanting an item can be broken up across as many days as it takes and does not need to be consecutive.

To determine how many Active Points are in a Framework for purposes of creating a Hermetic Wizardry item, use the following guidelines:

Multipower (MP): Consider a MP as a single Power construct with Active Points equal to the Reserve, +10 Active Point for every slot in the Multipower.
Elemental Control (EC, 5e): Consider an EC as a single Power construct with Active Points equal to the largest Power in the EC, +5 Active Points for each additional Power in the EC.
Variable Power Pool (VPP): Consider it a single Power construct with Active Points equal to the Pool plus the Control Cost.
Unified Power (6e): Add the Active Points of all the Powers together to derive a subtotal, and then apply the -1/2 Unified Power Limitation to it to derive an equivalent Active Point total. Thus three Unified Powers with a total of 90 Active Points would be considered to be a single Power construct with 60 Active Points.

After all enchanting has been completed, the Hermetic Wizard makes a single Hermetic Lore skill roll. There are no penalties to this skill roll by default, but the GM can apply any they think appropriate to represent any difficulty they think applicable.

If the skill roll is successful the Hermetic Wizard pays the Real Cost of their new item (aka focus), or new abilities in an existing focus, and the various Powers involved are added to their character sheet; or in the case of a creating a replacement item they regain use of the abilities that require that focus. If the skill roll is failed the Hermetic Wizard must start over again from the beginning if they wish to try again; character points are not spent on new abilities in the case of failure.

Bonuses are applicable to the Hermetic Lore skill roll as follows.

A Hermetic Wizard that is replacing an item that they previously had that was lost, stolen, destroyed, etc benefits from a +2 bonus to their Hermetic Lore skill roll.

A Hermetic Wizard can take extra time enchanting an item; for each cumulative doubling of time taken they gain a cumulative +1 bonus.

Example: Joseph Blanc is enchanting an item with a total of 20 Active Points. Normally he would have to spend 20 hours enchanting the item, but if he took 40 hours to do it he would gain a +1 bonus to his eventual Hermetic Lore skill roll. If he took 80 hours to enchant the item he would gain a +2 bonus, and so on.

A Hermetic Wizard can also take less time enchanting an item; for each cumulative halving of time taken they incur a cumulative -1 penalty.

Example: Joseph Blanc is enchanting an item with a total of 20 Active Points. Normally he would have to spend 20 hours enchanting the item, but if he took 10 hours to do it he would incur a -1 penalty to his eventual Hermetic Lore skill roll. If he took just 5 hours to enchant the item he would incur a -2 penalty, and so on.

Hermetic Wizardry Endurance Reserve

Hermetic Wizards may have a Hermetic Wizardry Endurance Reserve if they wish, though their Powers may also be bought 0 END if they prefer. However, a limitation is imposed upon the total number of Character Points a Hermetic Wizard can spend on their Hermetic Wizardry Endurance Pool as given below. Character Points within the limit can be spent on either Recovery or Endurance.

Endurance Reserve 5e

5e Scaling Capacity Point Cap = (10% of Total Character Points) {round in the character's favor}

EXAMPLE: Joseph Blanc has 125 total Character Points; thus he could spend (125 * .1) = 12.5 Character Points on a Mystic Endurance Reserve. This could be allocated as any combination of Recovery and Reserve with a total Real Cost of 12.5 or less points.

Endurance Reserve 6e

Check out the House Rule on 6e Endurance Reserves.

6e Scaling Capacity Point Cap = (Total Character Points / 5) {round in the character's favor}

EXAMPLE: Murgatroyd has 125 total Character Points; thus he could spend up to (125/5) = 25 Character Points on a Mystic Endurance Reserve. This could be allocated as any combination of Recovery and Reserve with a total Real Cost of 25 or less points.

Distinctive Features: Magi

A Hermetic Wizard should take the following Distinctive Feature Complication. Other Supernaturals can detect the Wizard from a fair distance, regardless of intervening mundane structures, whenever they are using any of their non-Invisible abilities.

Distinctive Features: Magi (Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable Only By Special Abilities; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures)